*Editor’s Note: This post contains spoilers for Mr. Robot. Proceed at your own risk if you haven’t watched.Â
Last week, the fate of several Mr. Robot characters was left up in the air. While this week’s episode, “Python Part 1”, didn’t reveal their whereabouts, or even whether or not they were alive, the plot progressed in several surprising ways. For starters, Elliot came face-to-face with a character we haven’t seen in quite a while (and have seriously been missing). Of course, we still don’t know whether or not the moment was real, because the disturbed protagonist was experimenting with a dreaming technique when it happened. Intrigued? Keep reading!
After a brief introductory scene featuring Elliot and his monologue about lucid dreaming, the episode immediately moved to Joanna who was tenderly caring for her baby. When the sweet moment was over, she looked to her guard and asked to see what we’re assuming is the address Elliot found last week. Judging by her remark about how what she was looking at was the greatest gift she ever received, the address likely belongs to someone else she’s been tracking. This was our only moment with Joanna this week, so hopefully we learn more about who lives there during the finale next week.
The one character we did get to spend a lot of time with this week was Angela. The last we saw her, Elliot had left her alone on the subway. Moments after the door closed, two people walked up to her and the show segued to a different scene. When we picked up with her during this week’s episode, we saw her riding in the back of the mysterious couple’s van. Despite her request to know what was going on, the man and woman continued driving, and eventually ended up at a suburban home.
Once they arrived, they shuffled her into a dark room without saying a word. The window-less room was only decorated with a constantly draining fish tank, and a small desk upon which a desktop computer, and a rotary phone sit. Eventually, a little blonde girl (who is pretty much a tiny version of Angela) walked into the room and started to question her. The first inappropriate question? Has Angela ever cried during sex. The uncomfortable moment was confusing for Angela, but once the girl told her “they” would punish her if she didn’t answer, Angela got with the program.
The questions only got weirder from that point. The girl asked a variety of things about whether Angela ever fantasized about killing her father and whether some key was in the room. We’re not sure what to make of the questions, or why we get the sneaking suspicion that the little girl is somehow a time-jumping Angela. Whatever the case, Angela passed the test, and was soon sitting face-to-face with Whiterose.
During the encounter, Whiterose told Angela that both she and Elliot became who they are today because of what happened to their respective parents. Apparently, the reason Whiterose grabbed Angela off the streets and put her through the test was because she was curious why she kept showing up everywhere, and how she was connected to Price. Whiterose wants Angela to drop her mission to bring down those responsible for covering up the E Corp scandal. Whatever Whiterose did to Angela worked because when she arrived at her lawyer’s home later on, she told her to never call her again. Of course, her hand was likely forced, but still achieved the same result.
On the E Corp front, Price was busy pushing for his plan to gain control and visibility into every loan taken with E Coin (something he’s apparently been trying to do for a while). With China bailing out the company with a two trillion dollar loan, things are finally going his way. However, the States being closely attached to China is bad news for Dom’s mission to take down the Dark Army. Following the attack at the diner (where she caught Darlene and Cisco), Dom told Santiago that she needed to return to the crime scene to investigate. She believes the Dark Army is responsible for the shooting. But with China giving money to the U.S., Santiago told her there’s no way the government will want to look into the Dark Army.
We didn’t catch up with Elliot until the latter half of the episode. After his lucid dreaming attempt seemingly worked, Elliot took on the role of the “unseen observer” and followed his Mr. Robot counterpart around. It was weird to say the least, but informative for Elliot and us viewers. He watched his alter ego crack a cypher that led to a phone number. Once he called it, a mystery voice told him to go to an address and get in a cab.
Once Elliot found said cab, Mr. Robot was nowhere in sight. Somewhere along the line, the two had merged (or at least that’s my interpretation of it). While Elliot was dealing with the cab driver’s demand for an address, Tyrell got into the car and gave the driver directions. We’re as unsure as Elliot was about whether Tyrell is even real. When the cab took off, Elliot started to question how Tyrell was there and whether the driver could see him. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a concrete answer, but it doesn’t matter because we’re glad Tyrell is back! He has apparently been in hiding all this time. Now that phase two is ready (we still don’t know what that is) it is up to them to take the next step.
What do you think stage two is? Do you think Darlene is alive? Is Tyrell really back? Leave your theories in the comments below, join the conversation on Facebook, or start one with me on Twitter: @Samantaha_Sofka.
Images: USA
